Item: Microsoft System Center Service Manager
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use System Center to image and manage machines. We use it to manage several different images for all the machines in the company. It is also used to deploy individual software as the need arises. It is also a tool used to deploy patches so we can manage them at a higher level and do more thorough testing before we push out to the entire network and find an issue the hard way. It also has some useful tools that you can use to get other information like using the command line and looking into another host to see their user profile.

Pros and Cons

Imaging - Can hold all of your images and allow them to be deployed from one central place
Patching - Able to manage patches from a central database and have reporting on machines out of compliance
Reporting - ability to utilize several reports to check compliance and other items you may want to review

When imaging on occasion the system does not seem to accept your deployment. It may require you to put the image in the machine collection several times before it shows as available.
Patching seems to go well on the admin side but we have been having some issues with them installing on the user side. It seems like the user gets a message and then they get concerned. I have noticed that if you ignore the message the updates will install at some point. It is always a small percentage of users each time we push a patch but not able to tell why this is happening.
Deploying software seems to be about a 50/50 success rate. Not sure why and it is almost not worth the headache of using SCCM for this type of deployment. It would be nice if it was working consistently because you could push the software and have it installed on the user's machine without any downtime for the user.

Return on Investment

Save a world of time when imaging
Save a world of time with patch management
Provides decent reports to get a snapshot quickly

Alternatives Considered

We use this program on the thin client side of things. We don't utilize it as much as SCCM so I am not sure how it compares to tell you the truth. We are about to explore this option to see if this is a better way to manage the thin clients, which it is pointing in that direction. I don't think it is as intuitive as SCCM just from the little experience we have with it.

Other Software Used

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager), AirWatch, Microsoft Exchange

Likelihood to Recommend

SCCM is suited for medium to larger companies. I don't think it would be worth the time on the back end to build all of the images and deal with the patch management with a small pool of machines. From a larger company standpoint, this is a plus for the system since the image is one build and you always have consistency when it is installed. I am sure the cost is prohibitive for a smaller company also.

SCCM for the win!

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft System Center Service Manager